MISSOURI’S PUBLIC DEFENDER SYSTEM ANNOUNCES HIRING FREEZE

Missouri State Public Defender Press Release Missouri's beleaguered State Public Defender System took another hit today as department director, J. Marty Robinson, announced a hiring freeze. The department set up to meet the state's constitutional obligation to provide defense counsel to those facing state criminal charges who cannot afford a lawyer has already made national news for its shortage of attorneys to handle the growing caseload. A recent New York Times front page article named Missouri's public defender system as one of seven defender systems nationwide to begin turning away cases due to insufficient staff to effectively handle the caseload. Ironically, the hiring freeze announced today has been necessitated, in part, by the department's successes in reducing its attorney turnover. In 2006, faced with close to 100% attorney turnover in the public defender system over the first five years of the decade, the state legislature funded additional salary increases for public defenders. Though still well below what lawyers could make in the private sector or even in most of the state's prosecutors' offices, the increases had a positive impact, dropping the department's attorney turnover from an annual high of 22% to around 14%. The recent downturn in the economy did the rest. With fewer senior lawyers venturing out to start their own practices and private law firms tightening their belts, turnover among public defender attorneys has plunged to an historic low, hovering close to just 2% for the past five months. This is both good and bad news for Missouri's public defenders. MSPD handles 83% of the felonies filed in Missouri's state courts and desperately needs to retain senior staff to deal with its burgeoning caseload crisis. However, for twenty years, the public defender system has relied upon "vacancy savings" to help make its annual payroll. As a senior lawyer leaves, his/her salary for the time it takes to re-fill the position is used to make up a portion of the system's payroll expenses. Departing experienced lawyers are usually replaced with new, inexperienced ones at a lower salary. That difference also accrues to help meet the system's payroll. The unprecedented drop in public defender turnover carries with it a drastic reduction in the amount of vacancy savings available to help meet the system's payroll costs. At the same time, a higher percentage of senior attorneys are staying on staff. The result is a perfect storm, in which the department's total payroll costs have increased at the same time its source of meeting those costs has plummeted. According to the department's director, J. Marty Robinson, "The writing is on the wall. If we don't take action now, we will not be able to meet payroll by the end of this fiscal year." Eric Barnhart, Chair of the Public Defender Commission, points out this is but one more step in an ongoing progression of efforts to keep Missouri's struggling Public Defender System afloat. A year ago, faced with close to a decade of no increases in staffing and a caseload that had increased by some 12,000 cases, the department eliminated its Alternative Sentencing Program and Youth Advocacy Offices. Both programs were proven successes at reducing recidivism among public defender clients, but the growing caseload necessitated converting all available positions into more lawyers to help handle the caseload. This past July, MSPD instituted a freeze on promotions. Under the hiring freeze announced today, any positions vacated by departing employees will remain unfilled through the rest of the fiscal year. Salary dollars associated with those positions will be diverted to meet the system's payroll costs. Director Robinson acknowledges the hiring freeze will further aggravate the system's ongoing caseload crisis. Three public defender offices – Springfield, Columbia, and Jefferson City, which together serve eight Missouri counties -- have already begun turning away cases and more are expected to do so under a new rule adopted by the Public Defender Commission in July of this year. The rule establishes maximum caseloads for each defender office and creates a mechanism for offices exceeding that standard to begin turning away additional clients. "We already don't have enough people to handle the caseload," says Robinson. "We need every lawyer we have, and then some. But we also need the funding to pay every lawyer." Indigent defendants cannot constitutionally be sentenced to jail without the provision of counsel. A supplemental budget request for funds to make up the payroll shortage has been submitted to the incoming governor and legislature, but a decision on that is not likely until March of 2009. In the meantime, for many of Missouri's poor facing criminal charges, the constitutional right to a lawyer may be on hold. For more information, contact: Cat Kelly, MSPD Deputy Director PH: 314-749-5480; Cathy.Kelly@mspd.mo.gov -- http://MissouriNetizen.com http://www.bransonedge.com http://www.bransonmissouri.missourinetizen.com